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Savannah again ranks among top travel destinations

With assistance from the Tourism Leadership Council, more than 50 hospitality workers voted Friday morning at the old Chatham County courthouse. (Photo by Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

The Hostess City of the South has again lived up to that nickname.

Savannah ranked among America’s top-10 cities in Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s annual “Readers’ Choice Awards.” Savannah tied for 10th with Boston and Carmel, Calif. among the 46,476 readers who participated in the survey.

“When it comes to Savannah, ‘it’s got it all,’ said one reader,” reads Conde Nast’s commentary. “With history, art, shopping, nightlife and ‘delicious food, you can’t have a bad time.’”

Savannah made Conde Nast Traveler’s top-10 list for the fifth straight year and the 15th time in the 25 years of the survey. The city did slip from seventh place in 2011 to a tie for 10th.

Savannah scored high with readers on ambience, friendliness and culture. Savannah ranked the worst among the 12 top-10 cities in shopping.

“The award speaks to the destination Savannah has become with visitors both here in the United States and internationally,” said Joe Marinelli, president of Visit Savannah, the local equivalent of a convention and visitors bureau.

Savannah attracted a record 12.1 million visitors in 2011 and is on pace to eclipse that total this year, Marinelli said. Hotel stays were up 6 percent over 2011 through the end of September.

The city’s tourism footprint is expanding, with a number of hotels, restaurants, museums and retail stores having either opened in the last year or under construction.

“Those are the kinds of products that people have come to expect from great cities,” Marinelli said. “We have more of that than ever before.”

The city many consider Savannah’s tourism rival, Charleston, S.C., topped Conde Nast Traveler’s top-10 list not just among U.S. cities but was ranked the top destination city in the world. Readers hailed Charleston’s beaches as the “best in the Southeast” and one reader called it a “bucket-list city.”

The list of top cities was a mix of large and small locales, from New York City to Napa, Calif.

Bluffton, S.C.’s Inn at Palmetto Bluff finished second among the best resorts/hotels among Conde Nast Traveler readers. Four of Savannah hotels made the magazine’s top-40 Southeast hotel list, led by the Foley House Inn at No. 9. The Bohemian, the Andaz (formerly the AVIA) and the Mansion at Forsyth Park also made the list.

TOP-RANKED CITIES

Readers of Conde Nast Traveler ranked Savannah as the nation's 10th-best destination in 2012. Go to cntraveler.com/rca for more on the magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards.